Musical Mondays Week 101 The Runaways

[theworstbuddhist 572]

9 minutes ago, Cameron H. said:

Honestly, most bands are manufactured to some degree or another. Even if not on a strictly corporate level, there is definitely some artifice going on. Even someone like Tom Morello said in his MasterClass that choosing your persona is just another aspect of Rock. I think I brought this up when we covered Head, but it's a big reason why I give The Monkees a pass as being a "manufactured" group. There's no real "right" way to start a band. Nor is there any "right" way to be a band. As cheesy as it sounds, all that really matters is whether the music is good or not. Everything else is just pointless gatekeeping.

Indeed. As I think I've mentioned before, I don't have a lot of respect for rock music, I think it is largely far too self-important and frankly laughable a lot of the time. I listen to a lot of jazz and some classical (and classical-adjacent stuff like film scores). In those worlds, pretty much all bands are manufactured; a conductor or bandleader does auditions and puts together bands for concerts, touring, recording, whatever the need. The idea of rock bands being "manufactured" comes I think largely from the transition from the 50s to the 60s, when bands went from a frontman like Little Richard or Elvis to bands like The Beatles or solo auteurs like Dylan, and the new kind of "thoughtful" romanticizing music journalism that grew up around it. Branding and capitalism put in their two cents as well of course, trying to make selling points out of things that are promoted as "authentic" - analog recording vs digital, vinyl vs CD, whatever. I remember laughing my ass off in college when I read the liner notes for a friend's copy of a new album by the band Boston (ugh) in which they bragged about how they had recorded everything analog and used source tapes that were so old that parts of them were stuck together. Chumps.

Anyway, as Frank Zappa observed, "all you rock and roll writers are the worst kinds of sleaze / selling punk like some kind of English disease / is that the wave of the future? Oh spare me, please."

[grudlian. 4725]

1 hour ago, Cameron H. said:

Honestly, most bands are manufactured to some degree or another. Even if not on a strictly corporate level, there is definitely some artifice going on. Even someone like Tom Morello said in his MasterClass that choosing your persona is just another aspect of Rock. I think I brought this up when we covered Head, but it's a big reason why I give The Monkees a pass as being a "manufactured" group. There's no real "right" way to start a band. Nor is there any "right" way to be a band. As cheesy as it sounds, all that really matters is whether the music is good or not. Everything else is just pointless gatekeeping.

Yeah, I don't have a problem with a band being manufactured. My complaint with The Sex Pistols is the hypocrisy of the fans acting like Sex Pistols are true punks while so many other bands are posers. Of the classic punk bands The Sex Pistols were the most manufactured.

[Cameron H. 23786]

55 minutes ago, grudlian. said:

Yeah, I don't have a problem with a band being manufactured. My complaint with The Sex Pistols is the hypocrisy of the fans acting like Sex Pistols are true punks while so many other bands are posers. Of the classic punk bands The Sex Pistols were the most manufactured.

Which is hilarious as John Lydon has always been upfront about it. It’s definitely a case of cognitive dissonance among their fans.

[grudlian. 4725]

Plus they called the movie Great Rock N Roll Swindle. They couldn't be more upfront about it. Maybe fans are more knowledgeable about it now than the Sex Pistols fans I knew in high school. But my experience is that fans have completely ignored the reality of The Sex Pistols.

[GrahamS. 803]

The Sex Pistols don’t hold a candle to the true rebels:NSYNC and the Backstreet Boys.

[grudlian. 4725]

Honestly, if I had to choose between Never Mind The Bollocks or I Want It That Way the rest of my life, I wouldn't hesitate to choose Backstreet Boys. 

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

HDTGM just announced a live virtual event on October 9th.

 

[Cameron H. 23786]

Missed it by a day, but apparently yesterday was Joan Jett’s birthday. That’s some serendipity right there.

[GrahamS. 803]

16 hours ago, grudlian. said:

Honestly, if I had to choose between Never Mind The Bollocks or I Want It That Way the rest of my life, I wouldn't hesitate to choose Backstreet Boys. 

“Tell me why-yyyy?”

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

Off-topic: The YouTube The Shows Must Go On channel is showing Fame this weekend, from Friday afternoon through Sunday sometime.

 

[grudlian. 4725]

10 hours ago, GrahamS. said:

“Tell me why-yyyy?”

When you put it that way, maybe I should have chosen Backstreet's Back.

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

19 hours ago, grudlian. said:

When you put it that way, maybe I should have chosen Backstreet's Back.

When did Backstreet leave in the first place?

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

On 9/23/2020 at 10:20 AM, Cinco DeNio said:

HDTGM just announced a live virtual event on October 9th.

 

They're going to do the CATS movie that came out last year.

[theworstbuddhist 572]

19 hours ago, Cinco DeNio said:

They're going to do the CATS movie that came out last year.

I'm really torn. I'd like to do the live episode but I fucking hate Cats (the musical, love the animal). And I really hate the look of that film.

[Cameron H. 23786]

So because I've been (kind of) watching that Runaways doc (really impressed "Cherry Bomb" was written as depicted in the film), I've been getting a bunch of Joan Jett recommendations from YouTube. I started watching her Rock and Roll HoF induction and Dave Grohl is called out to the stage to play "Cherry Bomb." I then saw the Rush induction was coming up next and they were playing with...Dave Grohl. Honestly, I think Dave Grohl may be the exact median of Rush and The Runaways. 

(I was also a little disappointed Rush beat Jett into the HoF by two years, but I guess they technically started a little bit earlier than she did as a solo artist.)

 

[AlmostAGhost 2718]

oh yea, Jett also returned the favor when Nirvana made the Rock Hall. they got a bunch of female musicians (St. Vincent, Kim Gordon, Joan) to fill in for Kurt. Pretty epic!

 

[GrahamS. 803]

9 hours ago, theworstbuddhist said:

I'm really torn. I'd like to do the live episode but I fucking hate Cats (the musical, love the animal). And I really hate the look of that film.

If you’re familiar with the play, I don’t know why you’d need to see the movie to enjoy the HDTGM show. I’m kinda waiting to see if it comes on HBO beforehand. But I saw the play in high school and from what I can remember it’s just 90-120 minutes of pure WTFery. No plot or anything (if you can’t guess, I’m with you, the play sucks).

The advantage of them doing an online live show is that you can still see the visual references they’re making without having to sit through this legendary piece of shit.

 

[theworstbuddhist 572]

18 hours ago, Cameron H. said:

So because I've been (kind of) watching that Runaways doc (really impressed "Cherry Bomb" was written as depicted in the film), I've been getting a bunch of Joan Jett recommendations from YouTube. I started watching her Rock and Roll HoF induction and Dave Grohl is called out to the stage to play "Cherry Bomb." I then saw the Rush induction was coming up next and they were playing with...Dave Grohl. Honestly, I think Dave Grohl may be the exact median of Rush and The Runaways. 

(I was also a little disappointed Rush beat Jett into the HoF by two years, but I guess they technically started a little bit earlier than she did as a solo artist.)

 

Grohl just ..uh.. loves rock & roll.

Did you see the series he did where he travelled around the USA and met different legendary musicians in every city and recorded a track with them? That was fun.

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

On 9/26/2020 at 12:24 AM, GrahamS. said:

If you’re familiar with the play, I don’t know why you’d need to see the movie to enjoy the HDTGM show. I’m kinda waiting to see if it comes on HBO beforehand. But I saw the play in high school and from what I can remember it’s just 90-120 minutes of pure WTFery. No plot or anything (if you can’t guess, I’m with you, the play sucks).

The advantage of them doing an online live show is that you can still see the visual references they’re making without having to sit through this legendary piece of shit.

 

I'm happy to do a Kast show (or shows) for people.  I'll also do the 1999 filmed stage show if people want to see that.  (Just found someone posted the 1999 film to Dailymotion.)

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

I forgot to mention I met Joan Jett once.  In 2000 they did a Broadway revival of The Rocky Horror Show and Joan played Columbia.  (She did a guitar solo during Time Warp and moved out too far so the cable came unplugged from the amp.)  After the show she came out to her car and signed autographs.  I was the last one and asked her how a Broadway opening was different from a concert.  She commented that she was used to having complete control when a concert was put on and she had to trust everyone else to do their jobs when she did Broadway.  She was very cool.

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

8 hours ago, Cinco DeNio said:

I forgot to mention I met Joan Jett once.  In 2000 they did a Broadway revival of The Rocky Horror Show and Joan played Columbia.  (She did a guitar solo during Time Warp and moved out too far so the cable came unplugged from the amp.)  After the show she came out to her car and signed autographs.  I was the last one and asked her how a Broadway opening was different from a concert.  She commented that she was used to having complete control when a concert was put on and she had to trust everyone else to do their jobs when she did Broadway.  She was very cool.

 

[Cameron H. 23786]

Just a reminder, @theworstbuddhist you’re up tomorrow  

[theworstbuddhist 572]

52 minutes ago, Cameron H. said:

Just a reminder, @theworstbuddhist you’re up tomorrow  

I thought @gigi-tastic was going to do the one she missed? No?

[Cameron H. 23786]

 

13 minutes ago, theworstbuddhist said:

I thought @gigi-tastic was going to do the one she missed? No?

I mean, everyone can work it out however they want, but Buddhist responded first and I had told him that he could go next when he responded to this thread. 

[theworstbuddhist 572]

28 minutes ago, Cameron H. said:

 

I mean, everyone can work it out however they want, but Buddhist responded first and I had told him that he could go next when he responded to this thread. 

I'm good either way so if you want to suggest something @gigi-tastic, go for it and I'll do next time and then I think we're caught up. If there's been no suggestion by tomorrow afternoon or something, I'll drop mine in.